out of touch

Perched in the Colorado High Country, we were cut off from the world and its excesses. No phones- not even cell coverage, no TV or radio, no newspapers. No Google (can't even remember why we needed it now), no weather.com (s'okay. Storms blow up on the mountain every afternoon, but clear out in time for the stars to dance. Figured that out withOUT weater.com), no traffic reports (watch out for the chipmunks playing Chicken, for the occasional deer, and for the slow-moving cattle being driven down the road by leather cowboys). By the end of Day One, we were quite over our loss of communication. We decided we really DIDN'T need it.

The cabin was equipped with a propane generator, which we fired up twice a day - for showers and washing breakfast dishes in the morning and for dinner dishes at night. After breakfast that first morning, our media-addicted boys begged for a movie. We put in "Cats and Dogs" and told them they could watch half of it. You should've heard the wailing and screaming and gnashing of teeth when we turned it off.

"NO FAIR!" they screamed.
"I don't WANNA do anything else!" they cried.
"We wanna finish the movie!"

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the mountain. We hiked around and looked for animal tracks, discovered what Aidan labeled as "PokeyPine" trees 'cause they have pokey things like porcupines (which he pronounces as pokeypines), tryed out the 4-wheelers, and breathed in and enjoyed the crisp, clean, dry air. Dani and I started reading the books we took, Darren split some logs, and the boys ran up and down the meadow out front, bringing me flowers and watching the hummingbirds. When the afternoon storms blew up, we gathered around the table to play Uno. I was surprised at how quickly the boys caught on, and that they understood how to strategize and WIN. We had hours and hours of fun playing Uno. Ian cracked us up when he had TWO cards left in his hand one time. He yelled out, "Dos!" He knew it was funny. I 'bout fell out of my chair.

Later that night after dinner, we turned the generator back on and suggested to the boys that it was time to finish their movie. You should've heard the wailing and screaming and gnashing of teeth.

"No fair!" the declared.
"Movies are BORING!" they professed.
"Movies take too long!" they insisted.
"We wanna play more games!"

I laughed. Out loud.
Mission accomplished.
THAT didn't take long.

:)